Craig Anderton
Well-known member
(Note: Anything titled “Craig’s Tip” would have appeared in the PreSonus Blog if I was still posting there, and will be included in the The Huge Book of Fender Studio Pro Tips and Tricks.)
Saturation is a “secret sauce” that’s often part of world-class mixes. The original Super Saturator multiband FX Chain used Softube’s Saturation Knob, however it is no longer included with a Fender Studio Pro account. Although the Saturation Knob is still available as a free download from Softube, some people prefer not to use plug-ins that require iLok, or where you need to create an account and sign up.
The Super-Saturator Mk II replaces the Saturation Knob with the Red Light Dist distortion. This FX Chain sounds great with drums, but is also useful with bass, hand percussion, guitar, and more. As a bonus, it includes a post-saturation Transient Shaper, which can be used separately from the saturation as a signal processor in its own right. Scroll to the end of this post to download the free FX Chain.
Splitter 1 splits at the following frequencies:
Transient Shaper Section
The second Splitter feeds the Transient Shaper section. The Expander emphasizes peaks. This can compensate for saturation’s tendency to reduce peaks. The Compressor’s heavy compression adds a fatter sound quality. The Expander and Compressor settings are preset. A Mixtool follows each stage to blend the expanded and/or compressed sound with the dry sound. The final processor is a Binaural Panner.
The Macro Controls Panel
Turning the five Sat controls fully counterclockwise provides minimal saturation. Turn up the Sat controls to increase saturation for their respective bands. The Sat control colors correspond to the color spectrum’s frequencies, from low to high—red, orange, yellow, green, blue. The Enable buttons make it easy to hear how each band affects the overall sound. To bypass a saturation stage, turn off its associated Enable button.
Although the main purpose of the Boost Peaks, Boost Fat, and Width controls is to complement the saturation process, to use these effects independently, simply bypass the saturation stages.
Typical enhancement doesn’t need much saturation. For example, to give drums a lift, try settings between 1.0 and 2.0, with perhaps a higher setting on the Lo band. It’s true that a little saturation goes a long way—but crank up the controls if you want to go from saturation to dirt.
Hey, it's free - so give this FX Chain a try! I think you'll find it gives way more satisfying, and flexible, saturation effects than single-band saturation. As always, questions, comments, kudos, and critiques are not only welcome but encouraged.
Saturation is a “secret sauce” that’s often part of world-class mixes. The original Super Saturator multiband FX Chain used Softube’s Saturation Knob, however it is no longer included with a Fender Studio Pro account. Although the Saturation Knob is still available as a free download from Softube, some people prefer not to use plug-ins that require iLok, or where you need to create an account and sign up.
The Super-Saturator Mk II replaces the Saturation Knob with the Red Light Dist distortion. This FX Chain sounds great with drums, but is also useful with bass, hand percussion, guitar, and more. As a bonus, it includes a post-saturation Transient Shaper, which can be used separately from the saturation as a signal processor in its own right. Scroll to the end of this post to download the free FX Chain.
The TL;DR Overview
- The FX Chain’s Splitter splits the incoming audio into five frequency bands. Each band feeds a Red Light Dist.
- To vary the saturation amount independently for the various bands, each band’s Distortion Knob has an associated Macro Control.
- To evaluate what each stage contributes to the overall saturation effect, use the Macro Control bypass/enable buttons.
- For post-saturation transient shaping, the bypassable Expansion and Compression stages emphasize peaks or “fatness,” respectively.
- To adjust the stereo image, the Width Macro Control connects to a Binaural Pan plug-in.
- Despite the apparent complexity, this FX Chain draws very little processing power.
Splitter 1 splits at the following frequencies:
- Lo Sat = under 200 Hz
- LoMid Sat = 200 – 600 Hz
- Mid Sat = 600 – 1.5 kHz
- HiMid Sat = 1.5 to 5 kHz
- Hi Sat = over 5 kHz
Transient Shaper Section
The second Splitter feeds the Transient Shaper section. The Expander emphasizes peaks. This can compensate for saturation’s tendency to reduce peaks. The Compressor’s heavy compression adds a fatter sound quality. The Expander and Compressor settings are preset. A Mixtool follows each stage to blend the expanded and/or compressed sound with the dry sound. The final processor is a Binaural Panner.
The Macro Controls Panel
Turning the five Sat controls fully counterclockwise provides minimal saturation. Turn up the Sat controls to increase saturation for their respective bands. The Sat control colors correspond to the color spectrum’s frequencies, from low to high—red, orange, yellow, green, blue. The Enable buttons make it easy to hear how each band affects the overall sound. To bypass a saturation stage, turn off its associated Enable button.
Although the main purpose of the Boost Peaks, Boost Fat, and Width controls is to complement the saturation process, to use these effects independently, simply bypass the saturation stages.
Typical enhancement doesn’t need much saturation. For example, to give drums a lift, try settings between 1.0 and 2.0, with perhaps a higher setting on the Lo band. It’s true that a little saturation goes a long way—but crank up the controls if you want to go from saturation to dirt.
Hey, it's free - so give this FX Chain a try! I think you'll find it gives way more satisfying, and flexible, saturation effects than single-band saturation. As always, questions, comments, kudos, and critiques are not only welcome but encouraged.